Svend Hammershøi Monumental Uranium Glaze Baluster Gulvvase

A monumentally large baluster shaped earthenware floor vase with a vibrant orange coloured uranium glaze made by Kähler Pottery, Naestved, Denmark, circa 1920.

Very few items produced by Kähler are signed with more than ‘HAK’, so works can only be attributed to certain designers based on their style and any information in old catalogues. [1]

Owing to its size, shape, and glaze, this ‘gulvvase’ (floor vase) is attributed to Svend Hammershøi (1873-1948), though there is a chance that it could be the work of Herman Hans Christian Kähler (1876-1940).

Among the crossovers in the work of these gentleman are a fondness for scale and Modernity through minimalism, inspired by classicism. Both also championed experimental glazes that were often asymmetric and organic due to kiln reactions.

In truth, the work of Hammershøi & HHC Kähler should be seen as a collaborative effort. Not least because all designs are the work of a team, but also, Hammershøi worked at Kähler for 55 years.

Hammershøi came to Kähler Pottery for the first time in 1893. He was then 20 years old and became friends with HHC Kähler, who was almost the same age. From 1904 to 1907, as well as working for Kähler, Hammershøi worked on assignments for Royal Copenhagen and Bing & Grøndahl. However, from 1911 Hammershøi developed designs in ceramics exclusively for Kähler, and this partnership lasted until Hammershøi's death in 1948.

Naturally, over the course of this long period Hammershøi had an invaluable impact on the Kähler workshop and its growth.

Of course, he developed many works which came to characterise the output of the workshop, and some of his stylistic predilections took hold quickly. For instance, after only a few years in the workshop, Hammershøi turned his attention to large pots and floor vases, like this one, which were turned by hand to achieve just the right silhouette. In this instance the form is still ‘just right’, perfectly balanced between the clean lines of a modern Art Deco trophy and an ancient vessel.

When it comes to the electric decoration on this vessel, accomplished by uranium in the glaze, this was greatly admired by HHC Kähler. Under his direction, it was most substantively ‘horn painting’ that was revived which was decorative, colourful and free-flowing. Both these more dramatic expressions were in rebuke of the famous “Kähler red”. A ruby red lustre glaze in the maiolica-tradition which was devised by his father Herman August Kähler and won an award at the Paris World Exhibition in 1889.

The last known purchase of uranium by the Kähler workshop was in 1939, so its use in ceramic glazes couldn’t have continued far into the 1940s.

[1] Kähler’s ‘HAK’ logo, which still today adorns all Kähler products was also designed by Hammershøi, the letters are the initials of Herman August Kähler.